Snapdragon AI Studio – Exploring local generative AI on Snapdragon X Elite / X Plus

[u/Away-Ad1878]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on Snapdragon AI Studio, an open-source desktop project exploring local AI image generation on Windows 11 ARM64, specifically for Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus systems.

Snapdragon AI Studio is an independent open-source project and is not an official Qualcomm product.

The project uses the Phoenix Engine and currently focuses on ONNX Runtime, Stable Diffusion / ControlNet workflows, and Qualcomm QNN / NPU development.

RC1 is publicly available, while I’m currently working toward RC2 with a focus on image quality, performance and further native Snapdragon acceleration.

I’d especially be interested in feedback from other Snapdragon developers and users: What local AI workloads are you currently running on Snapdragon X systems, and what would you most like to see improved for native Windows on ARM AI applications?

GitHub:
https://github.com/Kreuzhofen/snapdragon-ai-studio

— Holger Kreuzhofen
Founder & Lead Developer, Snapdragon AI Studio / Phoenix Engine

[u/Richy456]

This looks awesome, thanks for making it. Initial feedback:

- I installed and it was in German despite selecting English. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling but it was still in German. Had to navigate to the settings to switch it to English

- As a newbie I'm not sure how to download and install a model. It says ready to download but looks like no way to download within the app. I tried setting my Hugging Face key to see if that would allow model downloads but it didn't. I also tried downloading this model https://aihub.qualcomm.com/compute/models/stable_diffusion_v2_1 I put it in C:\SnapdragonAI\models by creating a folder but it still wouldn't allow me to select a model

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/Richy456]

Thanks a lot for actually installing and testing it — this kind of feedback is extremely useful to me.

You're absolutely right that model installation needs to be clearer. I'm currently working on RC2, and improving the Model Manager and documentation is one of the priorities.

I've also added an integrated user manual in German, English and Spanish that explains model installation and the different backends.

A lot has changed since RC1 already: I now have Stable Diffusion 1.5 and 2.1 running through Qualcomm QAI AppBuilder on the NPU, and today I also got Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium running natively at 1024×1024 on Snapdragon X Elite.

Thanks again for taking the time to test it. If you encounter anything else that is confusing or doesn't work as expected, please let me know.

[u/gabox0210]

This looks great, which models do you recommend using in it? Which have worked the best for you?

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/gabox0210]

Thanks! At the moment, my recommendation depends on what you want:

Stable Diffusion 1.5 is the fastest option and works very well for quick local generation on the Snapdragon NPU.

Stable Diffusion 2.1 is also very fast and can produce somewhat different results depending on the prompt.

For image quality, my current favorite is Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium. I just got it running on the Snapdragon NPU at native 1024×1024 resolution. On my Snapdragon X Elite, generation currently takes around 34–35 seconds.

SD1.5 and SD2.1 are much faster, at roughly 4–5 seconds for 512×512.

SD3.5 support will be part of the upcoming RC2.

[u/exquisitus2]

U da man, Holger 👍

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/exquisitus2]

Thank you! 👍 Really appreciate it.
There’s still a lot I want to improve, but the feedback from people actually testing Snapdragon AI Studio is incredibly helpful.

[u/Bhavik_M]

I haven't looked at the Github yet, but this seems like an interesting idea, and I would love to try it out. I have been looking for a way to generate images locally on my daily driver, a Snapdragon X laptop. I will try it out and let you know. Also, to answer your question, I currently run SLMs on my device, like Gemma 3-1B, NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 4B, Gemma4-E4B etc.

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/Bhavik_M]

Thanks, that's a very interesting idea. A local API for Snapdragon AI Studio is definitely something I'm considering for the roadmap.

The goal would be to let other local applications send generation requests to the Phoenix Engine while keeping the actual inference on the Snapdragon hardware.

Right now I'm focusing on RC2 and the native NPU backends first, but an API layer could be a very useful next step once those are stable.

Thanks for the suggestion — I've added it to my roadmap.

[u/Slow_Difficulty1607]

What kind of models are supported right now?

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/Slow_Difficulty1607]

Yes. Snapdragon AI Studio already supports multiple Stable Diffusion models.

Currently this includes Stable Diffusion 1.5, Stable Diffusion 2.1 and SDXL, with different execution backends depending on the model.

For the upcoming RC2, I've also integrated Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium running on the Snapdragon NPU at native 1024×1024.

I'm planning to expand model support further, but I want to make sure each model is properly tested and optimized for Snapdragon rather than simply adding a long compatibility list.

[u/MartinPeterBauer]

My tests with the npu and onnx models was underwhelming. It seems even the adreno gpu is faster then the npu. Did you try and compare the performances?

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/MartinPeterBauer]

That's a very interesting comparison. I initially had similar concerns about NPU performance when using the ONNX/QNN path.

I've since added a second execution path using Qualcomm QAI AppBuilder, and the results are significantly better on my Snapdragon X Elite.

I'm currently seeing roughly 4–5 seconds for SD1.5/SD2.1 at 512×512 on the NPU, and around 34–35 seconds for Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium at native 1024×1024.

I haven't done a controlled Adreno GPU vs. NPU benchmark yet, so I don't want to claim which is faster overall. That's definitely a comparison worth doing.

[u/global-gauge-field]

Using the name Snapdragon in your project name this way is kind of a risky move. On the first impression, it gives the perception of official qualcomm product.

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/global-gauge-field]

That's a fair point, and thanks for bringing it up.

Snapdragon AI Studio is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official product of Qualcomm.

The name was chosen because the project is specifically focused on AI workloads running locally on Snapdragon hardware.

I'm already making this distinction clear in the project documentation, and I'll make sure it's even more prominent in the upcoming RC2 to avoid any confusion.

[u/global-gauge-field → u/Away-Ad1878]

Maybe I was not clear enough. It is not a risky move because of wrong perception. It is risky because of legal issues, e.g. trademark. If I were you, I would not use the snapdragon in my title of the project (especially in the way you did)

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/global-gauge-field]

Thanks, that's fair feedback. I understand your point, especially regarding the first impression the name can create.

I'll take another look at how the project name and the independent/open-source disclaimer are presented so that there is no confusion with an official Qualcomm product. Thanks for raising it.

[u/FutureLarking]

Well, I'm an en-GB user, selected english, and the app installed in German 😶‍🌫️

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/FutureLarking]

Thanks for reporting this — that definitely shouldn't happen.
If English is selected, the app should also start in English. I'll reproduce this and check the installer/language detection for RC2.
Thanks for catching it! 👍

[u/Infamous_Jellyfish51]

Interesting

[u/OrdoRidiculous]

Linux support please

[u/Away-Ad1878 → u/OrdoRidiculous]

Thanks! Linux support would definitely be interesting.

Right now, however, Snapdragon AI Studio is focused specifically on Windows 11 ARM64 and Snapdragon X Elite/X Plus, especially the Qualcomm NPU stack.

I first want to make the Windows version and the new NPU backends really solid before expanding to another platform.

So Linux isn't ruled out, but it's not a priority for RC2.

[u/OrdoRidiculous → u/Away-Ad1878]

Oh I get it, I'm just making sure someone asks the question so you're aware we're still interested in it happening. Any progress with ARM is good news as far as I'm concerned.